


snugglebug

by amsves



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Comfortember, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s04e13 Shell Shocked Part 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27394567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amsves/pseuds/amsves
Summary: Hiccup can't sleep, for reasons he'd rather not elaborate on. So he goes for a walk.
Relationships: Astrid Hofferson & Stormfly, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Comfortember 2020





	snugglebug

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fill for Comfortember 2020, for both Day 3 (Nightmare) and Day 5 (Cuddling). It's also filling a square on my Bad Things Happen Bingo card (Nightmares). Whew!
> 
> Also, titles are the worst part of writing fic hands-down. I'm giving up.

As he had most nights as of late, Hiccup woke with a start.

He sat up in his bed like a man possessed, gasping for breath. His skin felt clammy with sweat, and his heart was pounding in his chest like a Catastrophic Quaken.

Hiccup glanced wildly around his room and—

Nothing.

Of course it was nothing. It was always nothing. Just some stupid nightmares that wouldn’t go away.

With a groan, he fell back down onto the bed. He hadn’t gotten more than a few hours of sleep in a single night yet, and the thing he kept dreaming about had been nearly a week ago.

It was embarrassing, more than anything. That he was being haunted by what was definitely a _good_ thing, an end to a war. Yeah, maybe it had been a close call, but what mattered was that things had turned out for the better. All six Riders and their dragons were safe, and the leaders of the Hunters were no more.

But as Hiccup stared blankly at the ceiling, he knew he was just kidding himself.

With another groan he sat back up and threw his blanket off of him. Toothless cracked an eye open curiously as Hiccup strapped his prosthetic leg on. “I’m going for a walk, bud. You can stay here.”

Toothless snorted, as if to say _Yeah, right. Of course I’m coming with you_.

Hiccup smiled. “Thanks, bud. Just a quick one, and then we’ll get back to bed.”

The pair quietly left the populated area of Dragon’s Edge and headed into the woods. There was no wind that night, not even a faint breeze, and the moon was full. It was really a pleasant night for a stroll. Too bad Hiccup wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it.

He and Toothless wandered aimlessly through the trees, Hiccup trying desperately and failing to get his wild thoughts under control. His heart rate had returned to normal, and his skin was no longer covered in sweat, but he still couldn’t focus, couldn’t clear his head and get those _nasty awful terrifying_ images of—

Something rustled.

Hiccup and Toothless turned in sync to face where the sound had come from, but they saw nothing.

“Probably just a bird,” Hiccup muttered under his breath. He placed a hand on Toothless’ head. “Nothing to worry about.”

Toothless warbled in agreement, and the pair continued on.

Then, there was the sound of a person grunting.

That was harder to ignore than some rustling leaves. Slowly, so as not to give away their position, Hiccup and Toothless crept through the forest towards the mystery sound. It continued intermittently, always the sound of a person experiencing frustration, sometimes accompanied with a sound Hiccup identified as a weapon impaling wood. Whoever this was, they were in the mood for a fight.

Hiccup wasn’t particularly in that same mood, but he was willing to defend his home.

The woods thinned right before they found their target. Toothless opened his mouth and geared up to fire a plasma bolt when—

A familiar blonde braid came into view. Hiccup squinted. “Astrid?”

His voice startled her, and she released the axe she was throwing in their direction. It struck a tree about a foot above Hiccup’s head.

“Hiccup? What are you doing out here?” Astrid asked as she and Stormfly ran over to them. She gave him a shy peck on the cheek before using his shoulder as leverage to reach her axe.

“I could ask you the same question.”

“You could, but I asked first. And I’m armed.”

“I have a _dragon_.” Astrid looked unimpressed, like she knew Toothless wouldn’t hurt her over something like this. Plus, she also had a dragon. Hiccup sighed. “Okay, fine. I was taking a walk.”

“Needed to clear your head?” Astrid asked sympathetically.

“How did you—“

“I’m the same, actually. I needed to do _something_. Maybe if my body was busy, my mind would forget. I keep remembering,” she paused, and a barely-noticeable shiver travelled up her spine, “I keep remembering what happened. At the volcano.”

And there it was, that thing that Hiccup had been trying desperately and without success to ignore. He had caused a man to fall into a volcano, certainly to his death. Astrid had been eerily close to dying at Viggo’s hands. _Hiccup himself_ had been awfully close to death by lava; that ground had been ready to crumble, and he easily could have fallen just like Viggo did. Sure, he and Astrid made it out alive, and Viggo got what he deserved, but it wasn’t like he could just … _forget_.

“Yeah,” he said, trying to keep his voice light and un-bitter, “Me too.”

“I can’t sleep,” Astrid confessed nearly in a whisper, like she was afraid someone else might hear. “I keep waking up. So I decided, may as well make something of the time I’m awake. Why waste it? So I come out here, to this clearing, and I throw my axe until my arms hurt. I can usually get a few more hours of rest after that.”

“Wish I had thought of that sooner. I just decided tonight to take a walk when I woke up. I couldn’t stand the thought of staring at the ceiling, thinking about it, watching it in my head over and over—"

“I get it,” Astrid interrupted. “I do.”

He sighed, and reached for her non-axe-holding hand. She took it and twined their fingers together.

“Maybe … we should try changing how we sleep?” Astrid suggested after a moment of blissful silence.

“Like how? Going camping?”

Astrid withdrew her hand from his to tap him on the nose. “Not exactly what I was picturing, no.” She placed her free hand on Stormfly’s neck. “I mean, I feel safer with my girl around. You feel safer with Toothless too, right? We know they’re going to protect us, but we get these nightmares anyway.”

That was all true. Hiccup didn’t understand the point. “So, should we sleep without our dragons?”

“I was thinking, the four of us should sleep somewhere together. Double the dragon equals double the protection? Maybe we could grab blankets and head to the Dome.”

It was worth a shot. Hiccup didn’t really think it would work, but it was worth a shot. “Let’s head home, then. Before I’m too sleep-deprived to fly straight.”

They returned as silently as they had left, and grabbed blankets as well as a few fish for the dragons as a treat. Hiccup and Astrid wasted no time slipping into the Dome and settling down on the floor with their dragons.

Curled up against Toothless on one side and Astrid on the other, Hiccup thought that the blonde warrior might have had a point after all. Sandwiched like this, he didn’t feel as exposed. Nightmares weren’t something that could physically attack him, but he was comforted all the same. To his delight, he felt himself getting sleepy.

The sun rose a few hours later. Hiccup didn’t wake up once.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me and request bingo squares on Tumblr (I’m @therewillbebeauty)! I'm playing both Fluff Bingo and Bad Things Happen Bingo, so I can either torture or pamper your fave--or both!


End file.
